Guide to Breweries and Brewpubs

Brew Hopping is a comprehensive, yet expanding, directory of North American breweries, microbreweries, craft breweries and brewpubs. Our data is continuously updated by a growing community including the beer lover, the home brewer, the beer advocate and the master brewer.

The easy to use interactive mapping allows you to find more than 2,000 regional craft breweries, microbreweries and brewpubs throughout the United States. Today's American craft brewers are located in the hearts of cities, up in the mountains, or in the middle of nowhere, housed in every sort of space, from historic buildings to old factories.

Brew Hopping is a free Web site for beer lovers and listed breweries alike, no login’s or memberships are required. Brew Hopping is supported strictly by the generosity of our advertisers, allowing us to give you straight forward and unbiased information.

The brewery

Brewing companies range widely in the volume and variety of beer produced, ranging from small breweries that produce a few dozen barrels a year, to large regional breweries which supply a limited quantity of quality products to the world such as the Boulder Beer Company in Boulder Colorado, to massive mega brewers, like Anheuser-Busch InBev, which is also the biggest brewer in the world, and produces hundreds of millions of barrels annually. Some commonly used descriptions of breweries are:

Microbrewery – The current term for a small brewery. The term started to be replaced with craft brewer at the start of the 21st century. Microbreweries are small producers of beer that serve local or regional markets. To qualify as a microbrewery, the establishment must produce less than 15,000 barrels annually. While microbreweries are not real competition for the major breweries, they do claim approximately 3 percent of the market share. One of the advantages of a microbrewery is its ability to supply beer to the consumer when it is at its peak of freshness. Microbreweries are brewing a handcrafted product on a more limited scale where quality is the most important concern. Fresh quality beer produced locally, without chemicals in processing or for preservation is the key note of the microbrewing industry.

Brewpub – Brewpubs are a natural progression of microbreweries. A brewpub is a microbrewery which serves food or is combined with a pub. A brewery whose beer is brewed primarily on the same site from which it is sold to the public, such as a pub or restaurant. If the amount of beer that a brewpub distributes off-site beer exceeds 75%, it may also be described as a craft or microbrewery. The most famous brewpub and microbrewery is Redhook Ale Brewery in Washington.

Contract brewing company or contract brewery – A business that hires another brewery to produce its beer. The contract brewing company generally handles all of the beers marketing, sales, and distribution, while leaving the brewing and packaging to the producer-brewery. Genesee Brewing Company, contract brews for Narragansett Brewing Company and Shipyard Brewing Company contract brews for a number of brewpubs and restaurants.

Regional brewery – An established term for a brewery that supplies beer in a fixed geographical location. With modern distribution methods this term is falling out of use today. New Belgium Brewing Company is a typical regional brewery.

Craft brewer – Craft Beer is mostly an American term that refers to beer that is brewed using traditional methods, without adjuncts such as rice or corn, and with an eye to what's distinctive and flavorful rather than mass appeal. Most microbreweries are also craft breweries; however "craft" beer can certainly also be a product of a large brewery like Sam Adams Brewery. Historically, craft bbreweries have satisfied the public’s demand for a greater variety of fresh quality beer. Today, we are experiencing a revival of that craft brewing tradition. Despite these trying times, craft breweries are continuing to experience rapid growth. America's demand for a greater variety of full-flavored beers started with the import beer market. Because, beer has shelf life and needs to be consumed when it is fresh, beer lovers are demonstrating their desire for more full-flavored beer that has the freshness that all beer drinkers deserve.

Brew Hopping not the official home page of any of the breweries or brewpubs listed on this site. Please contact the brewery directly for information or questions reguarding the breweries and their products.

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We would love for your participation as well, so if you happen to have favorite brewery or microbrewery or know of a great neighborhood prepub...be sure to let us know! Our directory grows more and more every day, and we are updating our information and adding user input on a regular basis. Click here to add a brewery.

The quest for great beer starts here

Don’t know where you begin your search for a local microbrewery or brewpub? We have composed a few helpful guides that outline some helpful hints whether you are looking for a guided tour of a brewery, or just looking for a local brewpub in your area to meet up with some friends.

America's Craft Brewing Cities

More and more beer lovers in the US want interesting, flavorful and complex brews. American Craft Brewers and the cities they are hosted in are more than happy to meet this demand, which in turn has made the US one of the best countries for beer in the world. In fact many American cities have been associated with the micro-brew industry by offering some truly unique breweries, brewpubs and microbreweries.

Portland microbreweries - Portland has more than 30 microbreweries located within the city limits, more than any city in the world. With 46 microbrew outlets, Portland has more breweries and brewpubs per capita than any other city.

Milwaukee microbreweries - Milwaukee, once home to four of the world's largest breweries incliding Miller, Blatz, Schlitz, and Pabst, was the number one beer producing city in the world for many years.

Seattle microbreweries - The local taste for beer spurs the microbrewing industry. Even before the microbrew revolution, Seattle was ranked as having America's largest per capita consumption of beer.

Denver microbreweries - Denver ranks first in the nation in beer production per capita and second in the number of breweries and micobreweries.

San Diego microbreweries - There's nothing more quintessentially San Diegan than sitting at a local bar, drinking a local brew from one of the great San Diego Microbreweries